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Every school district in Ohio is waiting to hear Gov. John Kasich’s plan for school funding, to
be unveiled on Thursday.

But one superintendent, Groveport Madison’s Bruce Hoover, told his school-board members he’d
heard that districts would keep 92 percent of their current funding. The other 8 percent would be
held back as incentives for districts that meet certain criteria.

Acting State Superintendent Michael Sawyers met with area superintendents last month to discuss
what to expect in 2013, such as the Common Core curriculum and third-grade reading guarantee.

Sawyers also shared what schools should anticipate in the next state budget, a source at
Groveport Madison said.

That’s because Vander Ark was standing in the room. In December, technicians failed to connect
to Vander Ark in Seattle via Internet feed.

Vander Ark — who urged the commission to use more technology and rely less on buildings, which
are costly — brought lots of supplemental material in large three-ring binders. The group met in
Ohio State University’s gleaming $118 million bricks-and-mortar student union.

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Rumblings that a struggling charter school had found a new sponsor to keep it open turned out to
be bunk.

Instead, lawyers for ScholArts Preparatory and Career Center for Children had to try to convince
a state hearing officer on Monday that it shouldn’t be shut down.

ScholArts hasn’t received state per-pupil funding for months and won’t again for February. The
state says the school overstated its enrollment and failed to pay into the state School Employees
Retirement System.

The school’s founder has cut staff pay by 20 percent until further notice, and some students
have left.

The hearing officer is to issue a report by Feb. 8. It will go to the State Board of Education,
which has the final say.

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Thomas Worthington High School went on a low-level lockdown on Monday after a student reported
that a young man she didn’t recognize “patted her on the behind” in an otherwise-unoccupied
hallway, as police put it. School officials weren’t sure whether he was a student, so they stayed
on a level-one lockdown the rest of the day.

No intruder was found. But justice already has been served: The girl told police she responded
by punching the groper in the face and fleeing.